EP 0 739 459 B1 has disclosed a disk brake which is suitable for use in commercial vehicle brakes and is provided with a brake lever which is arranged pivotably within a brake caliper. There is a mechanical adjusting device, likewise within the brake caliper, for compensating for the brake lining and brake disk wear which occurs during braking operation. In order to derive the adjustment from the pivoting movement of the brake lever, there is a mechanism, furthermore, which couples the brake lever to a drive element of the adjusting device. A pin which is fastened in the end face of the brake application shaft of the brake lever and extends from there to the outside serves as a lever-side mechanism element. A sliding block, into which the free end of the pin engages, serves, inter alia, as an adjustment-side mechanism element. The sliding block is guided longitudinally in a cutout on the outside of the adjusting device. The cutout extends in the longitudinal direction of the adjusting axis of the adjusting device.
The installation space which is taken up by the mechanism is at the expense, however, of the size and, above all, the length of the brake application shaft of the brake lever. This is disadvantageous, insofar as only a large brake application shaft also affords a correspondingly large area for those bearings which are subjected to the full brake application pressure of the brake and via which the brake application shaft of the brake lever is supported rotatably. Lower bearing forces can be achieved by way of a larger brake application shaft, to be precise concerning its diameter and/or its axial length.
A disk brake of the generic type is known from DE 10 2008 037 774 B3. Said disk brake is also provided with an integrated adjusting device for compensating for the brake lining and brake disk wear which occurs during braking operation, the adjustment being derived from the pivoting movement of the brake lever by means of a mechanism. The brake lever is of fork-shaped design and in this way has a clearance which affords space for the adjusting device. As a consequence of said clearance, the brake application shaft is divided into two spatially separated sections. The lever-side mechanism element of the mechanism is a pin which is fastened in an oblique arrangement in the end face of the one section of the brake application shaft.
It is also the case in the disk brake in accordance with DE 10 2008 037 774 B3 that the installation space which is taken up by the mechanism is at the expense of the size and the length of the brake application shaft which can be utilized for the pivotable mounting of the brake lever, which leads to the disadvantages which have already been mentioned above.